Twitter claims to have suspended 284 accounts from its platform for “engaging in coordinated manipulation.”
The social media company tweeted out on Tuesday that after working with industry peers, it appears that many of the accounts originated from Iran. It is not made clear which peers Twitter is referring to, but the company’s announcement did come on the same day Facebook said it took down hundreds of accounts, groups and pages, that were allegedly “coordinating inauthentic behavior.”
The suspensions came after the cybersecurity firm, FireEye, tipped off Facebook about the coordinated Iranian influence operation. Fireeye claims that the online campaign of misinformation from Iran involved a network of independent fake news sites and accounts on Instagram, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube.
Many of the fake-news sites and identified Twitter accounts were based in the U.S. and the U.K.
On Monday, Microsoft also said it thwarted a Russian-linked operation last week that targeted the U.S. Senate and some conservative think tanks.
The misinformation campaign aims to “promote political narratives in line with Iranian interests, including anti-Saudi, anti-Israeli, and pro-Palestinian themes,” FireEye analyst Lee Foster said in a statement.
Although not likely to influence the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, the current flood of removals does come as social media companies are scrambling to protect their platforms before November.
By: Maytinee Kramer
